4. Current Management
Guidance on the Production of World Heritage Property Management Plans.
4.1 Ownership
It is advised to include a summary of ownership rights across a WHS. Where a property is managed exclusively by public bodies it may be appropriate to include a map illustrating the areas those bodies are responsible for.
4.2 Governance
Effective management requires robust, sustainable governance, including a participatory, multi-stakeholder approach to ensure all possible stakeholders are involved and invested in the management of the property, and the vision and effective implementation of the management plan (26).
Governance and financial models should be regularly reviewed for resilience, including during the management planning process, and roles and responsibilities should be clearly identified. Agreed models and roles and responsibilities should be set out in the management plan, wich can act as a reference document for agreed processes.
Tool 4 in EOH 2.0 provides support for mapping and analysis of governance arrangements for the World Heritage property. The management plan template includes a suggested table structure which draws on EOH 2.0, Worksheet 4a (27).
This section of the management plan may include:
- A summary of key management partners and their roles, either as text or in tabular form as in Appendix A
- A diagram of the World Heritage property governance structure, including all property owners and contributors to management. This should summarise how stakeholders work together and who holds responsibility for decision-making
- Reference to the terms of reference for each management group (to be linked to or included in the Appendices)
4.3 Other Stakeholders
The World Heritage property may need to engage with some stakeholders, with interests in specific aspects of the property but who are not represented in the formal governance of the property. If this is the case, this section of the management plan can usefully:
- Identify those stakeholders that are relevant, but that are not represented in the governance structure
- Explain how the property engages with these stakeholders, who engages with them and when this engagement occurs
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Read next section | 5. Factors Affecting the Property
Guidance on the production of World Heritage Property Management Plans.
Footnotes
- UNESCO., ICCROM., ICOMOS., and IUCN (2013). 'Managing Cultural World Heritage', UNESCO, 19. (Accessed 19 February 2025)
- UNESCO., ICCROM., ICOMOS., and IUCN (2023). 'Enhancing Our Heritage Toolkit 2.0', UNESCO, 53 (Accessed 19 February 2025)
